A looming cabinet reshuffle has sparked intense lobbying among ministers and their political godfathers, as President Bola Tinubu prepares to sack underperforming appointees.
Sources reveal that ministers have been frantically calling their godfathers to influence the President, while others have sought the intervention of the President’s allies and associates, including Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila.
POLITICS NIGERIA learnt that the President has been under immense pressure from political godfathers and ministers who fear being dropped from the cabinet.
To alleviate this pressure, the Chief of Staff advised President Tinubu to take a brief break in the United Kingdom after the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in China.
“The President needed some time off to clear his head and make decisions without external influence,” a presidential aide disclosed.
Ministers and their godfathers have pulled out all the stops to save their jobs. Some have resorted to media campaigns, touting their achievements and highlighting their contributions to the administration.
Others have taken to social media, attempting to garner public support and demonstrate their commitment to the President’s agenda.
A source stated, “Since reports filtered out that the President would soon reshuffle his cabinet, he has been under immense pressure from political godfathers and ministers who are afraid that they may be dropped from the cabinet.
“Due to the intense pressure, the CoS had to advise the President to take some days off in the United Kingdom after concluding the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in China two weeks ago.
“Remember that for some days, Nigerians did not know about Tinubu’s whereabouts. After pictures of his meeting with King Charles surfaced online, people started speculating that he went to London for medical checks. The fact is that he was advised to spend a few days to allow the pressure and lobbying to subside.
“Anyway, it is not unusual for politicians to lobby on behalf of their wards but Nigerians are not satisfied with the performance of many of the ministers and the President would have no choice but to let them go. If you are not performing, you have to go, regardless of who your godfather is,” he added.
It is learnt that the cabinet shake-up will be based on empirical evidence from performance reports.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga on Wednesday confirmed that President Tinubu had stated his intent to rejig his cabinet.
He added, “The President has given an order to all his ministers at the last Federal Executive Council meeting to go out there and speak about the activities of his administration.
“Some of them have been media shy, television shy, radio shy, and he wants them to overcome all that and go out there and speak about what they have been doing because the feeling out there is that government is not doing enough and the government has been doing a lot. And it is up to them to go out there and blow their own trumpet. They should go out there and talk about what their ministries have been doing.”
The Central Delivery Coordination Unit, headed by Hadiza Bala-Usman, has been tracking and assessing ministerial performance. The unit received performance reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries.
“The assessment reports will be a product of a joint effort of the ministers, citizens, and industry experts,” Bala-Usman had explained early in the administration.
President Tinubu had directed ministers to present their performance reports to Nigerians. “If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us,” he stated during his first anniversary.
